Developing a digital proposition will not cannibalise retail channel sales in the lottery sector, according to Neil Brocklehurst, director of European business, former UK director, Camelot Global.

Brocklehurst was one of five expert speakers on an Omni-Channel Lottery Forum at ICE Totally Gaming at the ExCel in London today (Tuesday)

“Even in mature markets, you don’t have to grow digital at the expense of retail. The two can grow together,” he said.

“In terms of the retail value chain, there are fundamentals, which are essential for the basics of retail execution; foundations, which work with partners to make a lottery more visible, accessible and easy; and the future, utilising new technologies to enhance the customer experience.

“Relatively traditional things can be enhanced by new technologies.”

Brocklehurst said that the industry will need to “find a way” to work with platforms such as Amazon Dash in the future, but added that retail will remain central to the appeal of lotteries, with some 96% of European lottery sales and 99.8% of North American sales still coming through retail channels.

“Lottery is a product perfectly suited to retail,” he said. “Certain players prefer retail and prefer to be anonymous. Some people don’t want to take up a digital account.

“If we’re not prepared to adapt when changes hit retail, we could find ourselves in a difficult situation.”

Brocklehurst (pictured) took to the stage after win2day managing director Martin Jekl kicked off the forum by explaining that cross-selling mobile and online products is more challenging to lottery customers than casino players.

“We have a full-range digital offer, and despite early steps into digital channels, it’s still hard to build a growing share in mobile and online,” he said.

“We see a difference between cross-selling behaviour, and there is more in the casino sector. Lottery players don’t see themselves as gamblers, and they are harder to cross sell to in terms of platform usage.

“We have an increasing share of lottery-only users in digital channels, but multi-vertical users are more loyal.”

Laura Scanlan, client partner, EMEA real money gaming, social casino and lottery at Facebook, then outlined how the social network can help to drive lottery sales.

Scanlan highlighted that one out of every five minutes spent on mobile is spent on Facebook and Instagram.

“You need to find your audience, understand who they are and tailor your message,” Scanlan said.

“People are consuming more content in less time. Lotteries have a broad audience and appeal, particularly when you get to rollovers.

“Facebook has a worldwide lottery audience of 44m, with a predominantly female audience (59%) and an average age of 33.

“People who play the lottery are seven times more likely to click on an ad, make a post or like a comment than the average Facebook user, so it’s a highly engaged audience.”

Marc Frederix, marketing director of the Belgian National Lottery, then focused on field interaction.

“To connect with and engage a player you have to be relevant in product offering and distribution,” he said.

“You have to know what they like and be able to talk with them – not to them. You have to make them dream, believe and belong.”

In the final presentation, MultiMinds’ managing partner and digital technology lead, Philippe Vlaemminck, and Siegert Dierickx, managing partner and digital analytics lead, highlighted the challenge to monetise the audience.

They underlined the importance of aligning key performance indicators and business objectives as well as data collection, reporting and personalisation features.

They also highlighted challenge surrounding mobile, which has “no standardisation and difficulties in terms of aligning business needs”.